New Zealand confirms 15 online casino licences available

[Webzcas]

Online gambling in New Zealand is set to be regulated by 2026, with their Internal Affairs Minister announcing that there will be up to 15 licenses up for grabs for operators.

Operators who have shown an interest, include the likes of bet365 and Betway.

New Zealand is set to introduce regulation for online casinos which was first announced in July. The government has established a framework for online casino regulation aimed at harm reduction, enhanced tax collection efficiency, and strengthening consumer safeguards.

The regulatory timeline sets key milestones, with legislation for a licensing system planned for 2025. The government will introduce the bill in April 2025, targeting enactment by year-end. February 2, 2026 marks the start of vetting and auctions, with licensed operations commencing in April 2026.

 

[conker]

Hopefully, they apply a more sensible approach than their neighbours.

Depends how much of a bricks-and-mortar monopoly they have to protect and the propensity to gamble by the New Zealand residents I guess.

 

[Avernite]

I'd be surprised if Entain doesn't go for it.

It will be also interesting to see who else gets in. Knowing how abysmal and outdated we are on gambling I don't have much hope tbh.

 

[mulven]

Ellipse entertainment targets Canadians and New Zealanders pretty heavily but they are too small fry to go for it imo, I bet no one on this forum has ever heard of that group.

 

[Avernite]

Ellipse entertainment targets Canadians and New Zealanders pretty heavily but they are too small fry to go for it imo, I bet no one on this forum has ever heard of that group.

Ellipse? Hell they can't be doing a good job because I'm in NZ and have never heard of them.

 

[mulven]

Ellipse? Hell they can't be doing a good job because I'm in NZ and have never heard of them.

I won't gush about them too much as that would be shilling but they pay out five figures without blinking an eye (simple id and poa). Only bonus term is x20d+b wager, Main downside is they only really have readyplaygaming, which is about 95% rtp but one of their sites has pragmatics/microgaming.

They should pay some better marketing people

Maybe I should message them and say they should pay Gentoo for a review spot

 

[Valge]

An update about New Zealand's Online Casino Gambling Act, which came into force on July 3rd, making it one of the most significant market openings in the Asia-Pacific region this year.

The structure is deliberately competitive. A hard cap of 15 licences, one per brand, with no single entity allowed to hold significant influence over more than three. Entry goes through a three-stage process — expressions of interest open July 17, an auction in September, full applications in October. First licences are expected in early 2027. Any operator still serving New Zealand players without a licence after December 1st faces fines up to NZ$5 million and forced market exit.

The financial framework includes a 16% gambling duty on GGR, a 3.5% quarterly profit levy, and 4% of GGR ringfenced for community funding. That's a meaningful tax burden, which partly explains why the licence cap exists.

Player protection requirements are among the tighter frameworks introduced in recent years. Mandatory deposit and spend limits, a minimum 24-hour cooling period before any limit increase, a mandatory break after 60 continuous minutes of play, and session pop-ups showing losses and time elapsed. The DIA will maintain a public register of licensed operators, and every licensed site must display a unique registration icon.

The operators best positioned here are those with clean compliance histories. The DIA has been explicit that pre-licensing behaviour will be considered, and three court cases involving bet365, SkyCity, and Super Group are already filed in Auckland's High Court relating to historic operations in the unregulated period.

 

[Avernite]

An update about New Zealand's Online Casino Gambling Act, which came into force on July 3rd, making it one of the most significant market openings in the Asia-Pacific region this year.

The structure is deliberately competitive. A hard cap of 15 licences, one per brand, with no single entity allowed to hold significant influence over more than three. Entry goes through a three-stage process — expressions of interest open July 17, an auction in September, full applications in October. First licences are expected in early 2027. Any operator still serving New Zealand players without a licence after December 1st faces fines up to NZ$5 million and forced market exit.

The financial framework includes a 16% gambling duty on GGR, a 3.5% quarterly profit levy, and 4% of GGR ringfenced for community funding. That's a meaningful tax burden, which partly explains why the licence cap exists.

Player protection requirements are among the tighter frameworks introduced in recent years. Mandatory deposit and spend limits, a minimum 24-hour cooling period before any limit increase, a mandatory break after 60 continuous minutes of play, and session pop-ups showing losses and time elapsed. The DIA will maintain a public register of licensed operators, and every licensed site must display a unique registration icon.

The operators best positioned here are those with clean compliance histories. The DIA has been explicit that pre-licensing behaviour will be considered, and three court cases involving bet365, SkyCity, and Super Group are already filed in Auckland's High Court relating to historic operations in the unregulated period.

Good update, thank you for sharing.

I am concerned that there appears to be more checks in place for online betting as opposed to local pokie machines. Hopefully they plan on updating that too.

 

[teckiwi]

I do have some concerns ie I saw somewhere only ~7.5M in cash reserves was required to bid/hold a licence which does mean a chance of casinos going insolvent if they have some whales run hot. Do casinos take insurance for those types of situations? Are they required to under the new law etc.

The details keep getting worse and worse as more info comes out, the only thing I like right now is that you can use a different withdrawal method from your deposit one and the casino has to allow that. I don't want to gamble with a VPN(on sites that allow it) and have all my traffic via VPN but I guess I will have to.

 

[satchnz]

@Avernite @teckiwi - are you aware of any rules and regulations being put in place over there like the prohibiting of auto spins, bonus buys etc? I’m wondering if they will start with a softly softly approach, or whether they’ll go full noise and follow what the wonderful UKGC has done.

 

[Avernite]

@Avernite @teckiwi - are you aware of any rules and regulations being put in place over there like the prohibiting of auto spins, bonus buys etc? I’m wondering if they will start with a softly softly approach, or whether they’ll go full noise and follow what the wonderful UKGC has done.

None as of yet. This government isn't a fan of well thought out legislation though so we'll see

 

[satchnz]

None as of yet. This government isn't a fan of well thought out legislation though so we'll see

It'll come I'm sure